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The Situation Room
Giuliani Under Fire Over Dirt-Digging Ukraine Trip; Trump Focused On Impeachment; Interview With Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D- IL); Interview With Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT); Giuliani To New Yorker: I Needed U.S Ambassador To Ukraine Out Of The Way To Get Investigations; Comey Admits Sloppiness In FBI Russia Probe; Boeing Suspends 737 MAX Production; Trump's Ambassador To Hungary Meets With Giuliani Amid Impeachment, Raises Alarm Among Diplomats. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired December 16, 2019 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Nothing but gushing praise for his personal lawyer,
And "I was wrong." After years of defending the FBI's Russia probe, the former Director James Comey now concedes mistakes were made. Why wasn't he aware of the issues before an inspector general's investigation?
We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.
We're following the partisan warfare, as President Trump is expected to be impeached by the House of Representatives in less than 48 hours. Tonight, both parties already are looking ahead to a Senate trial. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is suggesting top Republicans may engage in a cover-up for the president if the Senate fails to call relevant witnesses in the Ukraine scandal.
Schumer is demanding subpoenas for acting right as Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, former National Security Adviser John Bolton, and two others. The White House is dismissing Schumer's request tonight with a familiar attack on Democrats and what it calls the impeachment sham.
I will get reaction from Senate Democrat Chris Murphy. And our correspondents and analysts are also standing by.
First, let's go to our senior national correspondent, Alex Marquardt.
Alex, we're getting a first taste of the new impeachment dynamic when the process moves from the House to the Senate.
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Wolf.
And what this Senate trial is going to look like is still very much up in the air. The ball is in Mitch McConnell's court. But now Chuck Schumer is out with his own new proposal to get four senior current and former Trump administration officials who we have not yet heard from on Ukraine to testify.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Conducting an impeachment trial in the Senate is an enormously weighty and solemn responsibility.
MARQUARDT (voice-over): The tables are turning. While Republicans for now control the Senate trial, Democrats today pushing their plan which they hope will gain Republican support.
SCHUMER: Do they want a fair, honest trial that examines all the facts, or they do they want a trial that doesn't let the facts come out? Trials have witnesses.
MARQUARDT: In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Schumer called for subpoenas to be issued for four witnesses who have direct knowledge of the Ukraine affair, acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, his deputy, Rob Blair, Budget Office official Michael Duffey, and former National Security Adviser John Bolton, who allegedly called what the president's envoys were doing in Ukraine a drug deal.
SCHUMER: Each of them will have information to share about the charges made by the House, information that no one has heard at this point.
MARQUARDT: Sources say McConnell does not want witnesses. He's been working in lockstep with the White House counsel on the trial's format.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Everything I do during this, I'm coordinating with the White House counsel. There will be no difference between the president's position and our position.
MARQUARDT: Enraging Democrats like Schumer, who told CNN there's a difference between discussion and working on the president's behalf.
SCHUMER: For him to talk to the president is one thing. For him to say, I'm going to do just what the president wants, is totally out of line.
MARQUARDT: Schumer hopes to model the trial on Bill Clinton's in 1999.
To get his way and have more control on what happens during the trial, Schumer needs at least for Republicans to join Democrats to give them a majority. Seven moderate or retiring Republicans are being targeted, including Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a vocal critic of the president's.
All this ahead of the full House impeachment vote expected on Wednesday. The Judiciary Committee, which approved the articles of impeachment, issuing their final report overnight, blasting the president for betraying the nation through abuse of power, which Democrats claim includes multiple federal crimes.
REP. JERROLD NADLER (D-NY): This is a crime in progress against the Constitution and against American democracy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUARDT: Now we are waiting to see when the two Senate leaders will meet to discuss the contours of that trial, Senator Mitch McConnell saying he will have more on that tomorrow.
BLITZER: We will hear what he has to say.
Alex Marquardt, thank you very much.
Tonight, the White House is responding to Senator Schumer's demands with defiance, this as President Trump has been attacking and venting on Twitter, even as he braces to become the third U.S. president to be impeached.
We're joined now by our Chief White House Correspondent, Jim Acosta.
Jim, the president is sharing his fury at Democrats, while gushing with praise for Rudy Giuliani.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He certainly is, Wolf.
The official line over here at the White House is that the president is unfazed by the likelihood that he will be impeached in a couple of days from now, but he's certainly not acting that way. The White House is responding to this demand from Democrats that new witnesses appear at the expected impeachment trial in the Senate by saying that request for new testimony proves the president did not do anything wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much, everybody.
ACOSTA (voice-over): With this week's expected impeachment vote hanging over him, President Trump is lashing out in all directions defending his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who just wrapped up a trip to, of all places Ukraine.
[18:05:07]
TRUMP: He sees what goes on. He sees what's happening. He sees all of the hoax that happens when they talk about impeachment hoax or the Russian collusion delusion. And he sees it.
ACOSTA: The president has been on a social media rampage, tweeting and retweeting attacks against his perceived enemies, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
In a comment on a video of Pelosi posted by a GOP lawmaker, Mr. Trump tweeted that "Nancy's teeth were falling out of her mouth."
The president's chief allies are playing defense, with Giuliani producing the results of his latest effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden presented on the Trump-friendly OAN Network.
RUDY GIULIANI, ATTORNEY FOR PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I know the elements cold. I remember judges charging juries.
ACOSTA: Giuliani made jaws drop, acknowledging to "The New Yorker" he was part of the push to oust the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch in that search for Biden dirt, saying: "I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way. She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody."
GOP Senator Lindsey Graham isn't hiding where he stands in the upcoming trial in the Senate that would follow an impeachment vote in the House.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I am trying to give a pretty clear signal I have made up my mind. I'm not trying to pretend to be a fair juror here.
QUESTION: I wasn't in any doubt at this point.
ACOSTA: Graham is urging the White House to agree to the speediest trial possible.
GRAHAM: I would tell the president, if somebody is ready to acquit you, I would sort of get out of the way.
If you start calling the witnesses the president wants, then they're going to start calling Mike Pence and, you know, the secretary of state, Pompeo.
ACOSTA: That's not what Senate Democrats have in mind, calling on at least four witnesses to testify, including acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.
SCHUMER: No one, no one has given a reason why these shouldn't testify. If President Trump is so certain that he did nothing wrong, why is he -- what is he afraid of? What is he hiding when he says Mulvaney or Bolton or the other two witnesses shouldn't testify?
ACOSTA: The president is also furious over the latest polls on impeachment, including one from FOX News that shows 50 percent would like to see Mr. Trump impeached and removed from office.
One big problem for the president? The way he's attacked the impeachment process has raised serious questions.
Former FBI and CIA Director William Webster, a Republican, posted an op-ed in "The New York Times" questioning Mr. Trump and Attorney General William Barr's attacks on FBI agents, writing: "The aspersions cast upon them by the president and my longtime friend Attorney General William Barr are troubling in the extreme. Calling FBI professional scum, as the president did, is a slur against people who risk their lives to keep us safe."
That was in reference to Mr. Trump's rally last week. TRUMP: They have destroyed the lives of people that were great
people, that are still great people. Their lives have been destroyed by scum, OK, by scum.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, as for Giuliani, the president was asked earlier today what he learned from his personal attorney after that trip to Ukraine. The president responded to reporters, "Not too much."
Contrast that with what Giuliani told "The Wall Street Journal" last week, that he had found more than the president could imagine, a big inconsistency there.
And, Wolf, we have been counting up all of the tweets that the president has posted over the last 48 to 72 hours, dozens of tweets just all over the map. Missing in all of those tweets is some kind of treasure trove of information that Giuliani dug up in Ukraine. It doesn't appear that the White House, that the president's personal attorney really has anything to show for that trip -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Jim Acosta at the White House for us, thanks for that report.
Joining us now, one of the senators who will take part in the impeachment trial, Democrat Chris Murphy.
Senator, thanks so much for coming in.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Yes, thanks for having me.
BLITZER: So, your leader, the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, he's prioritizing. He wants these four current and former White House officials to testify, Robert Blair, John Bolton, Michael Duffey, Mick Mulvaney.
Would you be willing, if the Republicans say, yes, they can testify, but they want to hear, let's say, from Hunter Biden or the whistle- blower? Would you be willing to go along with a deal like that?
MURPHY: No, we're not going to turn the Senate into a circus for conspiracy theories that the right-wing media machine is dreaming up.
Our job, under the Constitution, is to hear the impeachment charges that have been given to us by the House of Representatives. And the impeachment charges surround a set of facts relative to the withholding of aid to Ukraine in order to get them to interfere in an American election.
Now, I don't know what you have an impeachment clause for, if it's not to protect against the chief executive using the massive powers of his office to try to rig an election.
And so we should absolutely hear witnesses who are going to testify to the facts surrounding impeachment. We shouldn't not turn the Senate into some showcase for wild right-wing conspiracy theories. BLITZER: Even if it means that you're not going to get Mick Mulvaney or John Bolton or these two others who have a lot of firsthand information about what the president is thinking, what the president is doing, as far as his negotiations with the Ukrainian leadership to get so-called dirt on the Bidens?
[18:10:07]
MURPHY: Well, I don't think that there's Republican support to turn the Senate into this right-wing conspiracy circus.
And I think Senator Schumer is right that there are a number of Republicans who you have an interest in getting to the truth. And they say that they don't have enough information.
Well, maybe the White House has more e-mails. Maybe Mick Mulvaney can testify as to what he actually directed people like Bill Taylor and Kurt Volker to do.
And so I actually think there's a potential for Republicans to join us in making sure this is a fair trial and making sure that the Senate doesn't turn into this -- this media circus.
BLITZER: In opposing these witnesses, the Republicans say, hey, look, the House Democrats, they're the majority in the House. They had their chance. They could have fought harder to get these witnesses to show up and testify in the House of Representatives. And they decided to pass.
MURPHY: We have a separate constitutional responsibility.
So we have a responsibility to run a fair trial, where we put all of the facts in front of the senators who are going to make a decision on removal. And I think it stands to reason that the president has stopped people like Mick Mulvaney from testifying, has withheld these e-mails because he knows that Mulvaney is going to testify that he directed this scheme to try to get a foreign country to interfere in an election.
He knows there are e-mails between people in the White House talking about this corruption attempt. And so I think there's a reason why they're trying to stop these documents from coming before the Senate.
And I just want to make sure we have all of the information...
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: You think House Democrats should have pushed harder to get these witnesses to testify?
MURPHY: You know, again, I think that they had uncovered plenty of evidence to move forward on impeachment.
And, ultimately, I have to be responsible for the decisions that I make as a trier of fact in the Senate. BLITZER: Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, he says this in a new interview he granted to "The New Yorker" magazine regarding the ouster of the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
He said this: "I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way. She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody."
How significant is that?
MURPHY: I mean, I think it's just a restatement of what we already knew.
I mean, I'm glad he's making it clear on the record that he was going after Yovanovitch, so that he could more likely push the U.S. State Department into pursuing investigations to politically benefit the president.
But for all of us that have followed Ukraine for years, we knew exactly why Giuliani was going after Yovanovitch. We knew that Yovanovitch was not going to let her State Department and her embassy be turned into an appendage of the Trump reelection campaign. And so he needed to get Yovanovitch out of there.
Now, unfortunately for Giuliani, they installed Bill Taylor, who was no more enthusiastic about working for the president's political arm. And so the investigations didn't end up happening.
But I'm at least glad that Giuliani is admitting to us the corruption that we knew he was engaged in.
BLITZER: Two of your more moderate Republican senators, Mitt Romney Susan Collins, they refuse to say today whether they want witnesses to appear at the Senate trial. What does that say to you?
MURPHY: Well, I think it speaks to the fact that there is a potential to get 50 to 51 votes to bring a limited number of witnesses and documents before the Senate.
I mean, if I was a Republican senator, I don't know why I wouldn't want to have all of the evidence before me before making this monumental decision. And I think a lot of Republicans know why the president isn't letting these documents and these witnesses move forward, because they would likely be damning. They would not be exculpatory.
And so I'm hopeful that we can have some conversations behind the scenes. This isn't about making a political point. I mean, we just want to make sure that we have a fair trial.
BLITZER: Senator Murphy, thanks so much for coming in.
MURPHY: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: It's going to be a big, big, big deal in the coming weeks.
We're going to break down James Comey's new admission of errors in the FBI's Russia investigation with a former top lawyer for the bureau.
Also, safety fears surrounding the Boeing 737 MAX escalate, as the plane maker shuts down production.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:18:57]
BLITZER: Tonight, House Democrats are accusing President Trump of committing multiple federal crimes, including bribery, even though they were not explicitly referenced in the articles of impeachment.
We're joined now by Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of both the Intelligence and Oversight committees.
Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.
REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Thank you.
BLITZER: And let's walk through what the House of Representatives is about to do.
They will take a historic vote to impeach the president on Wednesday. Walk us through what will happen.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, as you know, there are two articles of impeachment, one for abuse of power and the other for obstruction of Congress.
And so there will be a vote on these articles. Obviously, I don't think that the speaker is doing anything other than directing people to vote per their conscience and their constituents. And I think that's what people are going to do on Wednesday.
BLITZER: Your Republican colleague Will Hurd of Texas says, you can vote against impeachment, but still disagree with some of the president's behavior.
How do you respond to that?
[18:20:02]
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I respectfully disagree with my colleague, in the sense that this type of behavior is precisely why the framers of the Constitution incorporated an impeachment provision within the Constitution.
The framers were deeply concerned about foreign powers getting involved in the domestic affairs of America. And, specifically, they would have been extremely concerned about pressuring a foreign power or getting a foreign power to get involved in our elections.
In this particular case, that's exactly what the evidence shows that the president, over a pattern of -- over several months exhibited a pattern of conduct in which he pressured the Ukrainians to basically investigate his political rivals, thereby compromising national security and the integrity of our elections, Wolf.
BLITZER: What does it say to you, Congressman, that not a single Republican in the House is expected to vote for either of these articles of impeachment?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, as you know, Justin Amash, I guess, was a Republican before he disagreed with the president. I think that he will probably vote in favor of the articles.
That being said, at this point, I think everyone has to vote their conscience and has to do the right thing and put the Constitution above party and politics. That's extremely important.
BLITZER: Should Justin Amash, who is now an independent member of the House, serve as an impeachment case manager, a manager in the course of the trial in the Senate, as some of your Democratic colleagues are recommending?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't want to speculate on who the manager is going to be.
I know that Nancy Pelosi is going to assemble a team that knows the facts and brings credit to the House in presenting the case in the Senate.
BLITZER: In an interview, a new interview, as we have been reporting, in "The New Yorker" magazine, Rudy Giuliani, the president's personal attorney, made this admission about his campaign to push out the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
He says this. He says: "I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way. She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody."
So, what do you think? How significant is that admission by Giuliani?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think it's very significant. And that's what the evidence showed during the hearings, that Rudy Giuliani and the president basically pushed Ambassador Yovanovitch away to basically install Rudy Giuliani in charge of Ukraine policy, along with the three amigos, Ambassador Sondland, Rick Perry and Volker, Ambassador Volker.
And, basically, what they sought to do was to basically commandeer Ukraine policy in favor of Donald Trump's political ambitions. And, as I said before, that's a shadow foreign policy. That is not necessarily in the best interests of the country, but maybe in the best interest of Rudy Giuliani's clients and Donald Trump's political agenda.
But that's not the way that our foreign policy should ever be run.
BLITZER: Should Giuliani be called as a witness?
KRISHNAMOORTHI: I don't know. We have never received the documents that were subpoenaed from
Giuliani. I personally -- I'm speaking for myself. I personally believe that we should always view documents from a witness before they are examined in terms of their live testimony.
And so I'd like to see those documents first.
BLITZER: Congressman Krishnamoorthi, thanks so much for joining us.
KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you so much.
BLITZER: All right, just ahead, we're going to have much more on Rudy Giuliani unplugged when it comes to Ukraine. Why is he apparently admitting he wanted the former U.S. ambassador ousted, so he could freely dig up dirt for the -- on the Bidens?
Plus, after two crashes, why is Boeing now halting, halting production of the 737 MAX?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:28:28]
BLITZER: President Trump is strongly defending Rudy Giuliani tonight, as his personal lawyer stirs up yet more controversy in connection with the Ukraine scandal.
Let's bring in our analysts to discuss.
And, Susan Hennessey, you have got a new book coming out next month entitled "Unmaking the Presidency: Donald Trump's War on the World's Most Powerful Office."
Just got it. Looking forward to reading it. I'm sure there's a lot of useful information in there.
But let's talk about Giuliani right now, his effort to House the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch .
He says in "The New Yorker": "I believed that I needed Yovanovitch out of the way. She was going to make the investigations difficult for everybody."
What does that tell you?
SUSAN HENNESSEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think it's a really significant admission, even though it's something that I think a lot of people already suspected was the reality.
This is Giuliani acknowledging that the smear campaign against Marie Yovanovitch was indeed tied to this essentially corrupt pursuit of wanting political investigations.
It's also really significant that he said they needed her to -- they needed to get her out of the way in order to get these investigations. If this -- if this administration actually cared about corruption, about rooting out corruption in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch is someone they would want on their team.
This is a person who has a very strong reputation among both Democrats and Republicans for being a crusader against corruption. So, the fact that Giuliani identified that he needed to get her out of the way is a pretty strong indication that what he was looking to do was not root out corruption, but actually engage in corrupt acts himself.
It's also an indication of how valuable Rudy Giuliani's testimony might be to our -- sort of our full understanding of what exactly happened here.
[18:30:01]
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Wolf, it's, of course, worth it to read the entire story by Adam Entous, my colleague by in The New Yorker, which is just unbelievable in its detail. But you just have to ask yourself who is Rudy Giuliani, why is he there, what is he doing?
And the idea that he is working and is a criminal defense attorney is just absurd. He is running American foreign policy. He is trying to get the American ambassador out of the way. Think about that as a concept for a private citizen, and he succeeded. I mean, it is just an extraordinary thing.
This is what Democrats mean when they say the facts of the case are undisputed. Even the president's lawyer is admitting the facts of the case.
BLITZER: The president, Michael Gerhardt, is strongly defending Giuliani. He's re-tweeting his tweets. How do you think this will all play out, his admission about getting rid of the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine? How will it play out in the Senate trial?
MICHAEL GERHARDT, LEGAL EXPERT: I think we will have find out when the trial happens but I do think this kind of exposure, this kind of admission really cuts against the defense you will likely to see in the Senate. The defense is likely that he did nothing wrong and this is all a witch hunt.
But when you hear something like that, as Jeffrey just said, it's hard to deny it and ignore it. So the public -- so what we may be doing is hearing stuff in public that cuts against the defense and then the president will have to deny the validity of that.
TOOBIN: Michael is so adorable. He thinks the facts are actually going to matter at the trial. I just -- I want to give him a hug. It's really great that you believe that.
GERHARDT: I didn't say that but I appreciate that, Jeff.
BLITZER: Let's talk about potential witnesses, David Swerdlick, Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, he wants these four current and former White House officials to testify, Robert Blair, John Bolton, Michael Duffey, Mick Mulvaney. What's going to happen? DAVID SWERDLICK, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So, potentially, all those witnesses could shed further light that we didn't see already on the enormous amount of evidence that came out on the House side of this investigation but I don't think it's likely we are going to see those witnesses. The administration will do everything they can to hold them back.
But what's significant to me is that Schumer is asking, and I think it's significant for this reason, Wolf. Minority Leader Schumer knows that if he doesn't lay down a marker now and say, these are the witnesses we could call and we would complain about not being able to talk to if the Senate trial drags on is a negotiating tactic to say that the Republicans, essentially, if you start calling Nelly Oren (ph), Hunter Biden and whoever represented Carter Page and the FISA judge, whoever they want to re-litigate the entire Mueller report, then we're going to ask to hear from these guys.
HENNESSEY: One of the big questions is whether or not there is going to be any cracks among the Republicans. It would only take four Republicans to essentially force some kind of fair process, right, saying, we aren't necessarily going to vote to convict but we actually are going to vote to get those 51 votes to insist on the witnesses and procedures that Chuck Schumer has laid out here.
Now, that might be too hopeful for Jeffrey's tastes but we did see something similar happened during the Kavanaugh confirmation fights. And so that may be one more area where we see people like Mitt Romney or Susan Collins really attempting to kind of force what they think is a fair process (ph).
BLITZER: Let's see what happens.
Everybody stand by. There's more news we're following. Even James Comey now acknowledging sloppiness in the FBI's Russia investigation. How should the bureau fix the problems?
And breaking news on the fate of the Boeing 737 Max and the safety nightmare after two crashes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:35:00]
BLITZER: James Comey's critics are seizing on a surprising admission by the former FBI director. He now concedes there was, in his words, real sloppiness in the bureau's efforts to obtain warrants, to secret surveil a Trump campaign adviser back in 2016. This comes after the Justice Department's inspector general found significant errors were made. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS WALLANCE, FOX NEWS HOST: 17 significant errors in the FISA process and you say that it was handled in a thoughtful and appropriate way. JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: He's right. I was wrong. I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and Justice had built over 20 years. I thought they were robust enough. It's incredibly hard to get a FISA. I was overconfident in those. Because he's right, there was real sloppiness. 17 things that either should have been in the applications or at least discussed and characterized differently, it was not acceptable. And so he is right, I was wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Joining us now, the former top lawyer over at the FBI, Jim Baker. He's a CNN Legal Analyst.
Jim, thanks so much for coming in. Do you agree with Comey?
JIM BAKER, FORMER TOP FBI LAWYER: I agree that it was sloppy and I agree that sloppiness in filings with any federal court, including the FISA court, is completely unacceptable. So that's just --
BLITZER: Isn't it more than just sloppiness, 17 major mistakes that were made, including distorting certain evidence that the FBI had?
BAKER: To people like me and people like Jim, I think, who spent our lives dealing directly with federal courts, sloppiness is completely unacceptable.
[18:40:02]
That is not the way you operate on front of a federal court. It's just -- it's -- I don't know what word you want to use. It's terrible, it's unacceptable, it shouldn't happen. But that is not the way that we should be filing matters in front of a federal court.
BLITZER: Yes, it was pretty shocking. And I'm sure when you read the report from Michael Horowitz, the inspector general --
BAKER: I was distressed about it. I was completely distressed about it.
BLITZER: Yes, because it makes the FBI look and the whole FISA system is just basically a rubber stamp and just give them misleading information and they say, go ahead and surveil, spy on an American citizens.
BAKER: Well, that is not my experience with the FISA court. I used to be in charge of the office that represented the United States in front of the FISA court. And that was not our approach at any time.
BLITZER: Because the impression over the years has always been the accusation is that FISA is simply a rubber stamp.
BAKER: Yes, that totally is inaccurate in my experience. The FISA court, I have said before publicly, is a national treasure and needs to be treated like that. It needs to be respected like that. And so this type of activity is unacceptable and I can't make excuses. BLITZER: I understand what you're saying. But what kind of specific reforms does this process need to make sure the sloppiness or the blunders or the awful things that occurred as far as Carter Page was concerned don't happen again?
BAKER: Well, certainly, it's essential that the American people have confidence in this process. That's absolutely correct. We have to -- I can make some suggestions. But we have to be careful not to just overreact with respect to this right away. So reforms need to be made. The inspector general recommended reforms. Director Wray is going to make reforms. I support all that.
Two things that could be done and looked at, I think, number one, the process is extremely complicated. There are many, many levels to it. And that makes it different from the normal kind of criminal investigations where you have an assistant United States attorney and an FBI agent sitting together, working on an affidavit, for example.
So having direct contact between the Justice Department attorneys and FBI field agents in every single case and mandating that is one thing that I think would help address something like that.
BLITZER: They've got to learn the lessons learned to make sure it doesn't happen again.
The president is speculating that Director Comey, in President Trump's words, could serve years in jail. The president has re-tweeted people saying that Director Comey is, quote, absolutely corrupt, a dirty cop and a total snake and liar. He's been re-tweeting those kinds of comments. What's your reaction when you hear that?
BAKER: The president is wrong and that kind of language coming from the chief executive should be unacceptable in America, especially immediately on the heels of an I.G. report that was thorough. They looked at a million documents, had 170 witnesses. And they concluded that the investigation was lawfully authorized, so it wasn't a hoax. They found no evidence of a coup or a seditious conspiracy or treason or any of these terrible things that the president has accused that the FBI have engaged in.
The American people shouldn't tolerate this from their chief executive.
BLITZER: I think everybody agrees. And Michael Horowitz, the inspector general, did an excellent job in that 400-plus page report.
BAKER: Exactly.
BLITZER: Jim Baker, thanks very much for coming in.
BAKER: Thank you, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. There's more breaking news just ahead on the new decision by Boeing to halt production of the 737 Max.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:45:00]
BLITZER: There's breaking news tonight. Boeing announcing it's suspending production of its troubled 737 MAX airplanes which have been grounded following two deadly crashes that killed more than 300 people.
Our Aviation Correspondent, Rene Marsh, is working the story for us.
Really, this is a pretty drastic step by Boeing.
RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It really is. And you know what, they were pretty much forced into making this very tough decision again Boeing announcing that they're going to temporarily halt the 737 MAX aircraft which has been troubled since it was grounded in March after those two deadly plane crashes.
But it is quite drastic because Boeing has been very positive, almost bullish saying that they strongly believe that the FAA was going to clear this plane to fly by the end of the year, around this month. And that simply hasn't happened.
But really, the fuel to this announcement today is that Boeing had a face-to-face with the FAA and the FAA made it very clear that they're working on their own timeline, not Boeing's timeline and this plane would not get the green light to fly again in 2019. This would stretch into 2020.
So, Boeing found they're backed up against the wall. They had been continuing to build new planes even as this grounding was taking place. They say they have some 400 aircraft in storage. So, if this going to be stretching into 2020, the question becomes, where do you store all these planes?
So, they really had no choice, Wolf, other than to say they would temporarily halt the plane's production. But it is worth pointing out, this has cost Boeing billions and the airlines hundreds of billions of dollars.
BLITZER: Yes, huge developments.
MARSH: Yes.
BLITZER: All right. Rene, thank you very much.
Much more news right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:54:09]
BLITZER: As President Trump is on the brink of impeachment, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani still has been digging for political dirt on the Bidens, claiming his recent trip to Ukraine and Hungary produced in his words big results. CNN is a taking a closer look at the Trump ally Giuliani met with overseas and how he figures into the president's rule breaking foreign policy.
Our Chief International Correspondent, Clarissa Ward is joining us from London right now.
Clarissa, so, what should Americans know about the U.S. ambassador to Hungary?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Ambassador David Cornstein is not a household name in the U.S., but he is certainly friends with some very important people, several of them at the heart of the impeachment hearings. The president of the United States, President Trump, has been a good friend of Ambassador Cornstein for nearly 30 years. Also, Rudy Giuliani as you mentioned, a good friend from New York City, he had dinner with him in Budapest just the week before last.
[18:55:07]
As a diplomat, though, Wolf, it's a different story. Cornstein is cutting a very controversial figure. He has been actively courting, Hungary's authoritarian right wing leader, Viktor Orban, much to the dismay of career diplomats.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WARD (voice-over): It was an independence day to remember, hosted by one of President Trump's oldest friends, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Cornstein.
Like the president, Cornstein enjoys putting on a show. Singer Paul Anka was flown in to serenade the guest of honor, Hungary's far right authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban.
DAVID CORNSTEIN, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY: It's my great honor to introduce my partner and my friend, the prime minister of Hungary, our guest of honor, Viktor Orban.
WARD: Four years ago, such a fawning display would have been unthinkable. But under President Trump, the U.S.-Hungarian relationship is blossoming once again.
And that's in no small part due to the appointment of Ambassador David Cornstein, an 81-year-old jewelry magnet from New York City with no relevant political experience beyond a decade's old friendship with the president.
CORNSTEIN: I became a diplomat. Who the hell would have figured that? I became a diplomat.
I know our president --
WARD: Political appointees on both sides of the aisle are often inexperienced and often times ineffective. But Cornstein has a direct line of communication with the president.
He was instrumental in arranging a White House visit for Orban, despite protests from both parties.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Probably like me a little bit controversial but that's OK. That's OK. You've done a good job.
WARD: One of Orban's many controversial moves has been to forced U.S. accredited graduate school Central European University, founded and funded by George Soros, out of Hungary. CEU president Michael Ignatieff says that while Cornstein publicly vowed to help the university in its dispute, privately, he quickly capitulated to Orban.
(on camera): Why would he be unwilling to push for an issue that's so clearly an American interest?
MICHAEL IGNATIEFF, PRESIDENT, CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY: I don't understand, to tell you the truth. Somehow I think Mr. Cornstein began to think, this is a liberal institution, I'm closer to a conservative like Orban than I am to the ideals of the institution. And what's disturbing about that is that shouldn't be the issue.
WARD (voice-over): For the government here, his appointment has been a gift, bringing Hungary back into the U.S.'s good books while appearing to demand no real concessions.
ZOLTAN KOVACS, HUNGARIAN SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION & RELATIONS: For the past two years since the coming of the new ambassador, we believe it's a new chapter we have opened. The previous chapter was unnecessary burdened with the kind of ideological debates and pressure that was coming from the Democrats, and was basically derailing U.S.-Hungarian relationships.
WARD: Cornstein's office declined a CNN request for an interview, citing the ambassador's busy schedule. But when by chance we bumped into him at a Budapest restaurant, he sat with us and let us ask a couple of questions on our cell phones.
(on camera): What do you say to people who say that you're too friendly with the Prime Minister Orban? What's your response to that?
CORNSTEIN: My response is the same as if you asked me about my relationship with my wife. We're married 50 years. And we have a good relationship, but we have our days where they're not so good, and we disagree upon certain things. The same thing that's true with the prime minister.
WARD: But that's a close relationship, then.
CORSNTEIN: It's a good relationship where we have established the trust with each other, and where I can tell him where I think he's making a mistake with what he's doing in a respectful manner.
WARD (voice-over): Ambassador Cornstein soon asked us to stop recording but off camera, we asked him about his recent dinner here with Rudy Giuliani.
(on camera): He would only say that the men are close personal friends and that he hadn't even asked Giuliani about the purpose of his visit here.
Throughout the conversation, though, Cornstein seemed unfazed by criticism that has come his way. He told us simply, I report to one man only and that is the president of the United States and so far, nobody has told me they don't like the results of what I'm doing.
(voice-over): Privately, though, some fear that the ambassador's actions undermine American interests here. And that Trump's disregard for diplomatic norms could deal a blow that will last much longer than Cornstein's tenure and have repercussions far beyond Hungary.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Clarissa Ward, thanks so much for that report.
I'm Wolf Blitzer in THE SITUATION ROOM.
"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
